High-speed optical communications system

ABSTRACT

A receiver for fiber optic communications.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/938,040 entitled “High-Speed Optical Communications System” filed onNov. 2, 2014 to Oscar E. Agazzi, et al., which claims priority under 35U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.61/257,384, “Optical Communication System Architecture andImplementation,” filed Nov. 2, 2009 by Oscar E. Agazzi et al. Thesubject matter of all of the foregoing is incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to high speed data communications.

2. Description of the Related Art

Optical fiber is widely used as a communications medium in high speeddigital networks, including local area networks (LANs), storage areanetworks (SANs), and wide area networks (WANs). There has been a trendin optical networking towards ever-increasing data rates.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention has other advantages and features which will be morereadily apparent from the following detailed description of theinvention and the appended claims, when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital receiver system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that includes an analog front end (AFE) of adigital receiver system.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an analog front end for a transmitter.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of automatic gain control (AGC) of a digitalreceiver system.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a demodulator calibration block of adigital receiver system.

FIGS. 6-7 are block diagrams of a bulk chromatic dispersion (BCD)equalizer of a digital receiver system.

FIGS. 8-9 are block diagrams illustrating an FFT algorithmimplementation and systolic processor architecture.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a lookup table (LUT) complex multiplier.

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram of a frequency error function(FEF).

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating analysis of the FEF.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the CCR loop.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the DPM CCR block.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a DPM error computation block.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a frequency estimator block.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a rotator block.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a joint phase and polarizationequalization.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram of error computation and equalizeradaptation.

FIGS. 20-23 are block diagrams of a 16-tap, 16-way-parallel T/2 MIMOfeedforward equalizer.

FIGS. 24-26 are block diagrams of a C_(ij)(k) (k=0, . . . , 15) updateengine.

FIG. 27 is a block diagram of a lookup table refresh unit.

FIG. 28 is a block diagram of a timing recovery PLL.

FIGS. 29-30 are block diagrams of a timing recovery phase detector.

FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating timing recovery initial frequencyacquisition.

FIG. 32 is a block diagram of a carrier and polarization recoverymodule.

FIG. 33 is a block diagram of carrier and polarization recovery PLLs.

FIG. 34A is a diagram of a Poincare sphere and Stokes parameters.

FIG. 34B tabulates Stokes parameters for decision vectors.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram of a parallel processing polarization andcarrier recovery module.

FIGS. 36A-B are diagrams illustrating least squares carrier frequencyestimation.

FIG. 37 is a block diagram of computation of phase error using tentativedecisions.

FIG. 38 is a block diagram of phase error prediction for carrierrecovery bandwidth enhancement.

FIGS. 39A-C are diagrams illustrating OTU3 framing.

FIG. 40 is a diagram illustrating an external framing technique.

FIG. 41 is a block diagram of framing-based CCR: coarse frequencyestimation.

FIG. 42 is a flow diagram of a startup state machine.

The figures depict embodiments of the present invention for purposes ofillustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize fromthe following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structuresand methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing fromthe principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An optical fiber communications link includes a transmitter coupledthrough optical fiber (the communications channel) to a receiver. Atypical transmitter may include a serializer or parallel/serialconverter (P/S) for receiving data from a data source on a plurality ofparallel lines and providing serial data to modulator drivers. Thedrivers then drive modulators that modulate the in-phase and/orquadrature components of one or both polarizations of an optical carrierproduced by a continuous wave laser source. The modulated opticalwaveform carrying the digital data is launched on optical fiber. In oneparticular approach, the incoming data is divided into four serial datastreams, each of which drives a modulator. The four modulators accountfor the four possible combinations of the two polarizations (denoted Xand Y) with the in-phase and quadrature components (denoted I and Q).Other types of modulators and transmitters/receivers can also be used.

On the receive side, a typical receiver includes an optical front endand a digital receiver backend. The optical front end typically includesa photodetector for receiving and detecting data from the optical fiber.The detected data is typically processed through a transimpedanceamplifier (TIA).

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital receiver system. This examplereceives signals from the optical front end and produces data to an SFI5.1 interface (SERDES Framer Interface Level 5). The following examplewill be based on this particular interface and 40 Gb/s operation,although the invention is not limited to these specifics. The signalpath from optical front end to SFI 5.1 interface has the followingcomponents: analog front end (AFE), polarization and phase rotationmodule and demodulation calibration block, bulk chromatic dispersion(BCD) equalizer, 4-D fast equalizer, carrier and polarization recoverymodule, slicer, and frame alignment and alternative CCR. Additionalmodules implemented in feedback loops include automatic gain control(AGC), timing recovery and coarse carrier recovery (CCR). The digitalreceiver system also includes a startup controller and diagnostic unit.Not all of these modules are required in every system. They are shownhere for illustrative purposes. The remaining FIGS. 2-41 describeexamples of the different modules, their functions and implementationsin more detail.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram that includes an analog front end (AFE) of adigital receiver system. In these figures, x and y represent twopolarization and I and Q represent in-phase and quadrature components.Thus, the different combinations of polarization and quadrature yieldfour channels. The AFE includes a programmable gain amplifier (PGA) andan interleaved A/D converter (with 8 branches in this example). Eachbranch includes a track and hold (T&H) and A/D circuitry (ADC).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an analog front end for a transmitter, forexample if the receiver is to be combined with a transmitter to producea transceiver.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of automatic gain control (AGC) of a digitalreceiver system. Block A in the top part of FIG. 4 shows the feedbackpath for one channel. The PGA shown in block A is shown as part of theAFE in FIG. 2. The feedback path A is implemented for each of the fourchannels, as shown in the bottom part of FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a demodulator calibration block of adigital receiver system. This block M multiplies the 4-D input vector bya user-programmable 4×4 matrix. It is a building block of the FFE,reused here to calibrate the demodulator with user-provided parametersand to rotate the polarization and phase under control of the startupstate machine. Besides matrix transformations, the calibration blockalso compensates the demodulator skews. This is done by digitallycontrolling the phase interpolators in the analog front-end (separatephase interpolators are used for the XI, XQ, YI, and YQ channels).

FIGS. 6-7 are block diagrams of a bulk chromatic dispersion (BCD)equalizer of a digital receiver system, and FIGS. 8-10 show componentswithin the BCD equalizer. FIGS. 8-9 are block diagrams illustrating anFFT algorithm implementation and systolic processor architecture. FIG.10 is a block diagram of a lookup table (LUT) complex multiplier.

This example is based on the following. The impulse response length<128T (256 T/2 samples). The input block consists of 256 T/2 samples.The FFT size is 512. An overlap and save implementation of the frequencydomain filter is used. The block size is twice the input block, or 512complex samples. Half of these samples come from a new input block, andthe other half are repetition of the previous input block. The FFTengine can process 1 FFT/IFFT in two DSP clock cycles, or 4 FFT/IFFT in8 DSP clock cycles. Multiplications in the filter are done withserial/parallel multipliers. Each S/P multiplier can process onemultiplication in 8 clock cycles. The total number of multiplications inthe filter is 2×512 complex, or 4096 real (every 8 DSP clock cycles). Inan alternate embodiment, parallel multipliers could be used. In thisexample, the number of multipliers would be 512.

As shown in FIG. 8, the FFT/IFFT is implemented using a standardalgorithm. This algorithm requires (N/2)log₂ N complex multiplicationsfor an N-point FFT. One possible implementation is a direct mapping ofthis flow chart into hardware, as shown in FIG. 9. With thisarchitecture, the result is a systolic processor with a throughput of 1N-point FFT per clock cycle (of the FFT processor, which is notnecessarily the same as the clock of the rest of the DSP).

In this specific example, the FFT has a size of N=512, which in anoverlap and save FIR architecture corresponds to a block size of 256samples (since 2 consecutive blocks are concatenated). For T/2 sampling,this corresponds to 128 bauds, and for a 16-parallel DSP, thiscorresponds to 8 DSP clock cycles. Therefore, with the systolicarchitecture of FIG. 8 and assuming the processor processes 4 FFTs perblock, its clock would run at half the DSP clock frequency, which isinefficient. To achieve a better utilization of the hardware it isconvenient to reconfigure the systolic processor so that each stageprocesses two consecutive steps of the FFT, running at the full DSPclock frequency, as shown in FIG. 9. This results in a reduction of thehardware of approximately a factor of two. However, now the factors inthe multiplications are not always the same, so the actual saving isless than a factor of two.

FIGS. 11-17 relate to the coarse carrier recovery. FIGS. 11-13illustrate operation of the CCR loop, and FIGS. 14-17 show one possibleimplementation.

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram of a frequency error function(FEF) u_(f). FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating analysis of the FEF. FIG.13 is a block diagram of the CCR loop.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of the DPM CCR block. FIGS. 15-17 are blockdiagrams of components within the CCR block. FIG. 15 is a block diagramof a DPM error computation block. This block calculates the powerdensity difference (error) between both sides of the BCD FFT output.FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a frequency estimator block. This blockuses the calculated error to estimate the frequency offset. There is adifferent frequency correction factor F(n) for each input symbol. Thefinal frequency correction for the block is taken from the lastfrequency correction factor F(P−1). This term is added to the nextblock. FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a rotator block, which rotates theretimer output (input to the receiver) using the frequency estimate.There may also be a CCR status flag block, to assert an OK flag when thefiltered error is below a certain threshold.

In this example, the feedforward equalizer (FFE) is a traditional 16-tapT/2 equalizer with a MIMO structure. The input is a 4-dimensional (real)vector and coefficients are 4×4 (real) matrices. “Complex butterfly”constraints are not imposed. Complex butterfly constraints areequivalent to making the equalizer 2-dimensional complex instead of4-dimensional real. Alternatively, they can be viewed as forcing the 4×4real coefficient matrices to be composed of 4 2×2 unitary matrices. Byremoving the unitary constraints in the 2×2 submatrices, the equalizeris allowed to compensate angle errors in the modulator or other errorsthat cause the QPSK constellation not to be perfectly square.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of a joint phase and polarizationequalization. FIG. 19 is a block diagram of error computation andequalizer adaptation.

FIGS. 20-23 illustrate one implementation of a 16-tap, 16-way-parallelT/2 MIMO feedforward equalizer. It is easiest to start with FIG. 23,which shows the overall architecture. C(k) are 4×4 matrices, and x(n)and y(n) are 4-D vectors. FIG. 22 illustrates 16-tap processing elementblock F from FIG. 23. FIG. 21 illustrates a distributed arithmeticmatrix-vector multiplication engine (block M in FIG. 22). FIG. 20illustrates a distributed arithmetic dot product engine (block D in FIG.21).

The total number of 16-entry lookup tables for a 16-tap, 16-way parallelMIMO equalizer is 6 tables per dot product×4 dot products per matrixmultiplication×16 matrix multiplications per interleave×16interleaves=6144 tables. However, out of these 6144 tables, there areonly 64 groups of 96 tables each, where the 96 tables within the grouphave identical contents. The 64 distinct groups correspond to the 4 rowsof each matrix tap, times the 16 taps of the FFE. Each group of 96tables with identical contents consists of 6 tables per dot product×16interleaves. It may be possible to share hardware among identicaltables. However this requires multiple access logic, which may be morecomplicated than creating multiple instances of each table.

FIGS. 24-26 illustrate one implementation of an C_(ij)(k) (k=0, . . . ,15) update engine. FIG. 26 shows the overall block diagram, which isinstantiated 16 times (for i=0, . . . , 3 and j=0, . . . 3,). FIG. 25 isa block diagram of a single FFE coefficient update engine (block C inFIG. 26). FIG. 24 is a block diagram of an adaptation dot product engine(block A in FIG. 25).

FIG. 27 is a block diagram of a lookup table refresh unit. Thisrefreshes multiple entries, such as 16 entries, of each one of 96 lookuptables with identical contents in one clock cycle. There are 64instances of this engine, corresponding to the 4 rows of each matrixcoefficient of the FFE times its 16 coefficients.

FIGS. 28-31 relate to timing recovery. FIG. 28 is a block diagram of atiming recovery PLL. The phase detector is based on the “Wave DifferenceMethod” (see Agazzi et al, “Timing Recovery in Digital SubscriberLoops”, IEEE Transactions on Communications, June 1985, pp. 558-569),which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In thismethod, the phase error is computed as the difference between the squaremagnitude of the (complex) samples of the signal taken at T/4 before andafter the center of the eye. The above computation generates a nearlysinusoidal tone at the difference frequency between the local samplingclock and the clock used in the remote transmitter to transmit symbols.The phase detector seeks the zero crossings of this sinusoidal tone. TheT/2 feedforward equalizer that follows interpolates the sample at thecenter of the eye from the samples at T/4 before and after. This methodworks well in the presence of intersymbol interference. To avoidexcessive ISI in the input signal, the phase detector is placed at theoutput of the bulk equalizer.

FIGS. 29-30 are block diagrams of a timing recovery phase detector. FIG.30 shows the phase detector, including both X and Y polarizations. FIG.29 shows more details of block Ω in FIG. 30, and also block Φ in FIG.29. By register programming, the phase detector may operate based on thephase error information from one (selectable) or the two polarizations.

In this particular implementation, because of the latency of theparallel processing implementation of the timing recovery PLL, itscapture range is limited to about 100 ppm. However, a capture range ofat least +/−200 ppm is desirable. The capture range of at least +/−200ppm can be achieved by initializing the frequency register (I register)in the P+I loop with an initial estimate of the frequency error.

FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating this timing recovery initial frequencyacquisition. The period T_(E) of the timing recovery phase error is ameasure of the timing frequency error. By measuring T_(E) an accurateestimate of the timing frequency error can be obtained. The estimate ofthe timing frequency error thus obtained is “jammed” into the frequencyregister (I register) in the P+I loop filter. To determine the sign ofthe phase error, the above procedure is repeated. A positive sign isassumed for the frequency error in the first iteration of the algorithm.If this actually doubles the frequency error instead of cancelling, thealgorithm is repeated and the second estimate of frequency error issubtracted from the first.

FIGS. 32-38 relate to carrier and polarization recovery. FIG. 32 is ablock diagram of a carrier and polarization recovery module. FIG. 33 isa block diagram of carrier and polarization recovery PLLs.

Decision-directed polarization recovery techniques are based oncomputing a polarization angle error signal using decisions and theequalizer output. Proper alignment of phase and polarization enablescorrect decision to be made. Therefore, the joint convergence of threealgorithms: equalization, carrier recovery, and polarization recoveryenables decision-directed techniques. A polarization recovery techniquethat does not require decisions may be more robust.

This particular example uses Stokes parameter based polarizationrecovery. FIG. 34A is a diagram of a Poincare sphere and Stokesparameters. FIG. 34B tabulates Stokes parameters for decision vectors.The desired polarization states lie all in the S₁=0 plane. For linearlypolarized states it is also S₃=0. For linearly polarized states that donot lie in the S₁=0 plane, the product e_(P)=S₁ sign(S₂) can be used asan error signal in a feedback loop that aligns the axes of polarizationof the equalizer output with the X and Y axes. The above error signal isforced to zero for circularly or elliptically polarized states, in otherwords, for states such that S₃ is nonzero. In one approach, the errorsignal is forced to zero if S₃ is larger than a certain threshold, say0.2 (assuming S₀=1 normalization).

Polarization alignment does not require that phase be aligned. On theother hand, polarization alignment facilitates decision directed carrierrecovery techniques. Therefore, the preferred sequence of operations isas follows. Enable blind convergence of equalizer. After blindconvergence, switch to decision-directed convergence and at the sametime enable polarization recovery. After convergence of polarizationrecovery, enable carrier recovery. In alternate embodiment, polarizationrecovery is enabled in an intermediate step before enablingdecision-directed operation of the equalizer.

For carrier recovery, in a parallel processing implementation, thebandwidth and the capture range of a carrier recovery PLL could besignificantly reduced as a result of the latency inherent in theparallel architecture. However, these problems can be alleviated by amore elaborate design. In this example, the Least Squares CarrierFrequency Estimation and the Zero Phase Start techniques are used toalleviate the capture range problem, and the Tentative Decision PhaseError Prediction technique is used to alleviate the bandwidth reductionproblem.

FIGS. 35 and 37 are block diagrams of a parallel processing polarizationand carrier recovery module. FIG. 35 is the high level block diagram.FIG. 37 illustrates block S in FIG. 35. FIGS. 36A-B are diagramsillustrating least squares carrier frequency estimation. In FIG. 36, theslope of least squares straight line fit to unwrapped phase error is anestimate of the carrier frequency.

In this particular example, as a result of latency, a parallelprocessing implementation limits the capture range of the carrierrecovery PLL. To enhance the capture range, a technique based on theleast squares estimator of the carrier frequency is used. During aninitialization period at startup, the LS estimate of the carrierfrequency is iteratively computed and added to the frequency register (Iregister) in the P+I loop filter until the value stored in this registeraccurately represents the carrier frequency. Then, in normal operation,a simplified form of the LS estimation algorithm is run, where phaseunwrapping is no longer performed. The LS estimate of the carrierfrequency error continues to be used to update the I register in thePLL.

FIG. 37 is a block diagram of computation of phase error using tentativedecisions (block S in FIG. 35). Block S makes “tentative” decisions anduses them to compute the slicer error (used to adapt the equalizer) andthe phase error (used to update the carrier recovery PLL). The decisionsare “tentative” in the sense that “final” decisions will be made laterwith a phase error reduced by correcting the NCO output in the carrierrecovery PLL using the samples of the phase error that could not beaccounted before due to latency constraints.

FIG. 38 is a block diagram of phase error prediction for carrierrecovery bandwidth enhancement.

The Phase and Polarization Rotation Matrix Computation block (in FIG.35) adds to the output of the NCO a phase rotation proportional to theinterleave number and the value of the frequency register to determinethe rotation angle of each interleave, thus accounting for the phaserotation generated during each symbol period as a result of the carrierfrequency. The Bandwidth Enhancement block delays the samples of theequalizer output to match delays with the phase error and thereforecompensate latencies. These delays are not shown in the figure.

FIG. 39 is a diagram illustrating OTU3 framing. In one embodiment, themultiplexing/demultiplexing scheme shown in FIG. 39B can be used for theserial bit stream going into the 4 channels of the 2P-QPSKtransmitter/receiver. This scheme results in the 12-bit framing patternsshown in FIG. 39C transmitted on each subchannel of the 2P-QPSK channel.These patterns allow the 4 subchannels to be uniquely identified andproperly aligned at the system interface (SFI 5.1 or MLD). Delaysbetween the two polarizations arising from improper convergence of thefast equalizer can also be corrected.

An OTU3 frame detector and “subchannel aligner” can also be included. IfOTU3 frames are not available in the received stream, the on-chip OTU3frame detector can be disabled. External commands will be accepted bythe receiver to control the subchannel alignment hardware.

FIG. 40 is a diagram illustrating an external framing technique. Theon-chip framing block performs the operations shown, either based on aninternal OTU3 framing detector as described above, or on commands issuedby external hardware. The framing operations are the same regardless ofwhether the frame detection is internal (OTU3 based) or external. Thedynamic operations are used for the framing-based coarse carrierrecovery.

FIG. 41 is a block diagram of framing-based CCR: coarse frequencyestimation.

FIG. 42 is a flow diagram of a startup state machine.

Although the detailed description contains many specifics, these shouldnot be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but merely asillustrating different examples and aspects of the invention. It shouldbe appreciated that the scope of the invention includes otherembodiments not discussed in detail above. For example, thefunctionality has been described above as implemented primarily inelectronic circuitry. This is not required, various functions can beperformed by hardware, firmware, software, and/or combinations thereof.Depending on the form of the implementation, the “coupling” betweendifferent blocks may also take different forms. Dedicated circuitry canbe coupled to each other by hardwiring or by accessing a common registeror memory location, for example. Software “coupling” can occur by anynumber of ways to pass information between software components (orbetween software and hardware, if that is the case). The term “coupling”is meant to include all of these and is not meant to be limited to ahardwired permanent connection between two components. In addition,there may be intervening elements. For example, when two elements aredescribed as being coupled to each other, this does not imply that theelements are directly coupled to each other nor does it preclude the useof other elements between the two. Various other modifications, changesand variations which will be apparent to those skilled in the art may bemade in the arrangement, operation and details of the method andapparatus of the present invention disclosed herein without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appendedclaims. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined bythe appended claims and their legal equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A receiver comprising: an analog front endperforming analog-to-digital conversion on a plurality of serial datastreams received over an optical fiber to generate a digital signalvector, the digital signal vector comprising at least an in-phaseX-polarized component, a quadrature-phase X-polarized component, anin-phase Y-polarized component, and a quadrature-phase Y-polarizedcomponent; a bulk chromatic dispersion equalizer applying a frequencydomain equalization and producing a first equalized signal vector; afast equalizer further equalizing the first equalized signal vector byapplying a second filter, the fast equalizer producing a second filteredsignal vector; a carrier recovery module demodulating the secondfiltered signal vector to generate a baseband signal vector; and a framealignment module detecting frames of the baseband signal vector forsynchronization with a framer interface, the frame alignment module toselect one or more framing operations from a predefined set of framingoperations and to apply the selected one or more framing operations tothe baseband signal vector, the predefined set of framing operationsincluding: swapping polarizations of X-polarized and Y-polarizedcomponents of the baseband signal vector, rotating a constellation ofX-polarized or Y-polarized components of the baseband signal vector, orshifting Y-polarized components of the baseband signal vector by aninteger multiple of a period of the baseband signal vector.
 2. Thereceiver of claim 1, further comprising: a demodulator calibration blockbetween the analog front end and the bulk chromatic dispersionequalizer, the demodulator calibration block multiplying the digitalsignal vector from the analog front end by a matrix to rotatepolarization and phase of the digital signal vector and generate acalibrated signal vector for providing to the bulk chromatic dispersionequalizer.
 3. The receiver of claim 2, further comprising: a coarsecarrier recovery module estimating a carrier frequency of the calibratedsignal vector and generating a carrier control signal based on theestimated carrier frequency; wherein the calibration module calibratesthe digital signal vector based on the carrier control signal.
 4. Thereceiver of claim 2, wherein the chromatic dispersion equalizercomprises: a transform engine transforming the calibrated signal vectorto a frequency domain signal vector; a frequency domain digital filterapplied to the frequency domain signal vector; and an inverse transformengine transforming the filtered frequency domain signal vector to atime domain signal vector.
 5. The receiver of claim 4, wherein thetransform engine comprises a fast Fourier transform (FFT) engine andwherein the inverse transform engine comprises an inverse fast Fouriertransform (IFFT) engine.
 6. The receiver of claim 1, further comprising:a timing recovery module detecting a frequency associated with the firstfiltered signal vector from the chromatic dispersion equalizer andgenerating a sampling clock, wherein the analog front end samples theinput vector based on the sampling clock.
 7. The receiver of claim 6,wherein the timing recovery module comprises a phase-locked loop.
 8. Thereceiver of claim 1, further comprising: an automatic gain controlmodule detecting an amplitude of the digital vector from the analogfront end and generating an amplitude control signal based on thedetected amplitude.
 9. The receiver of claim 8, wherein the amplitudecontrol signal comprises a signal vector for independently adjustingamplitude of different components of the input vector.
 10. The receiverof claim 1, wherein the carrier recovery module further comprises: aphase estimation block for estimating a phase of the second filteredsignal.
 11. The receiver of claim 10, wherein the carrier recoverymodule further comprises: a polarization estimate block for estimating apolarization angle of the second filtered signal.
 12. The receiver ofclaim 1, wherein the carrier recovery module comprises a phase-lockedloop circuit.
 13. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the analog front endcomprises: a plurality of signal paths corresponding to the plurality ofanalog input signal components, the plurality of signal paths eachcomprising: a track-and-hold module sampling the plurality of analoginput signal components; and an analog-to-digital converter convertingthe sampled signal to a digital representation.
 14. The receiver ofclaim 13, wherein the plurality of signal paths each comprise: aprogrammable gain amplifier adjusting a gain of a corresponding analoginput signal component.
 15. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the fastequalizer comprises a coefficient update engine to update coefficientsof the fast equalizer.
 16. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the framerinterface comprises a serial-deserializer framer interface integratedwith the receiver.
 17. The receiver of claim 1, wherein rotating theconstellation of the X-polarized or Y-polarized components comprisesrotating by an integer multiple of π/2.
 18. The receiver of claim 1,wherein the frame alignment module is further configured to select oneor more framing and coarse carrier recovery operations from a predefinedset of framing and coarse carrier recovery operations and to apply theselected one or more framing and coarse carrier recovery operations tothe baseband signal vector, the predefined set of framing and coarsecarrier recovery operations including: dynamically rotating aconstellation of X-polarized or Y-polarized components of the basebandsignal vector by an integer multiple of π/2T, where T is a period of thebaseband signal vector.
 19. The receiver of claim 1, wherein the carrierrecovery module comprises a frequency estimation block to estimate acarrier frequency of the second filtered signal vector.
 20. The receiverof claim 1, wherein the frequency estimation block estimates the carrierfrequency using a least squares carrier frequency estimation.
 21. Themethod of claim 1, wherein demodulating the second filtered signalvector comprises: estimating a carrier frequency of the second filteredsignal vector.
 22. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating the carrierfrequency comprises applying a least square carrier frequencyestimation.
 23. A method for processing data received over an opticalfiber, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of serial datastreams over an optical fiber; performing analog-to-digital conversionon the plurality of serial data streams to generate a digital signalvector, the digital signal vector comprising at least an in-phaseX-polarized component, a quadrature-phase X-polarized component, anin-phase Y-polarized component, and a quadrature-phase Y-polarizedcomponent; applying a frequency domain equalization to produce a firstequalized signal vector; equalizing the first equalized signal vector byapplying a second filter to produce a second filtered signal vector;demodulating the second filtered signal vector to generate a basebandsignal vector; and detecting frames of the baseband signal vector forsynchronization with a framer interface; selecting one or more framingoperations from a predefined set of framing operations to apply to thebaseband signal vector, the predefined set of framing operationsincluding: swapping polarizations of X-polarized and Y-polarizedcomponents of the baseband signal vector, rotating a constellation ofX-polarized or Y-polarized components of the baseband signal vector, orshifting Y-polarized components of the baseband signal vector by aninteger multiple of a period of the baseband signal vector; applying theselected one or more framing operations to the baseband signal vector tosynchronize the frames of the baseband signal vector to the frameinterface.
 24. The method of claim 23, further comprising: prior toapplying the frequency domain equalization, multiplying the digitalsignal vector from the analog front end by a matrix to apply a lineartransformation to a polarization and phase of the digital signal vectorand generate a calibrated signal vector.
 25. The method of claim 23,further comprising: detecting a frequency associated with the firstfiltered signal vector from the chromatic dispersion equalizer andgenerating a sampling clock; and sampling the input vector based on thesampling clock.
 26. The method of claim 23, wherein rotating theconstellation of the X-polarized or Y-polarized components comprisesrotating by an integer multiple of π/2.
 27. The method of claim 23,further comprising: selecting one or more framing and coarse carrierrecovery operations from a predefined set of framing and coarse carrierrecovery operations, the predefined set of framing and coarse carrierrecovery operations including: dynamically rotating a constellation ofX-polarized or Y-polarized components of the baseband signal vector byan integer multiple of π/2T, where T is a period of the baseband signalvector; and applying the selected one or more framing and coarse carrierrecovery operations to the baseband signal vector.